Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The great yeast extract tasting test...

Since coming to Cambodia my palate has adapted. Now I enjoy noodle soup for breakfast with offal & plenty of chilli. I have to eat rice at least once a day or I don't feel quite right, I LOVE Bor Bor - rice porridge.

My tooth has become sweeter - I suck condensed milk through a straw with a splash of chocolaty nutty flavoured Khmer coffee & I drink evap milk with syrup as a treat. Snacks have to involve rice, banana or bean, coconut & be deep fried.

I was feeling very jaded recently & before going on the long bus journey back home I went to the restaurant across the road from the bus station & ate rice with pork, pickles & a bowl of soup at 6 30 am & it was the best bloody hangover cure I have ever had.

I am yet to eat spiders, crickets or fertilised eggs but it is just a matter of time - I do love one year fermented rotten fish paste (Prohok) after all.

So I have adapted to the Khmer diet & tastes but can Cambodians try something from my mother palate? Where ever I am in the world I can always be found with a pot of marmite. I have an ongoing debate with my Australian friend Kristy about which yeast extract is superior - my mate Marmite or the Australian alternative Vegemite. She mistakenly believes that the bitter, saltier, foul tasting Australian version is better. On a recent visit to Cambodian, after a Facebook induced debate & stand off, Kristy bought vegemite, marmite & another generic yeast extract product with her so that we could use our old translator & his girlfriend as our judges for the ultimate taste test.

Below is a photographic record of the results of giving yeast extract to virgin palates. It would seem in Cambodia with yeast extract, you either hate it or you hate it a little bit less!

Moments before the first tasting - Vegemite

Moments later - taste buds are assaulted

Generic yeast extract

Its getting all too much

Kristy's antipodean biased response to Marmite!

Struggling to be a demure Cambodian female in the face of Vegemite

Kristy is happy that the taste challenge has been such a success

Kristy's vote

Under duress the best of a bad bunch

The sweetest tasting one

Marmite to the left of me, Vegemite to the right - here I am stuck in the middle with you